The Great Worm Lich

It was already late at night when Zhang Lisheng returned to Tudenan. He continued to cultivate his secret method and when the sky became bright, the black smog behind him dispersed and finally felt that the wizard power in his body had already reached the limit of a Rank-8 Wizard.

“I only need to breakthrough now…” The young man opened his eyes in delight and jumped out of the animal leathsr chair.

Walking out of the bark house, he looked at the Tudenan headman who had been waiting since the bright beautiful Spring sun shone down on the land early in the morning. “Tugra, gather the warriors who will receive the blessing ritual today.”

With brisk footsteps, he walked into the newly expanded enormous ‘Tree House of Blessing’ and started his day.

Time flew slowly. In the bark house that was named ‘Tree House of Blessing’ which was actually an operating room, the stone platforms that had been increased to 200 in number allowed the 400 cases of Gold Core fragment transplant surgeries to be completed successfully before the evening arrived.

After washing his hands, Zhang Lisheng breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the more than 120 Hellfire tribesmen who succesfully received the fragment transplant. A smile crept unknowingly onto his face as he shouted, “Come in and take these ‘blessed’ warriors out.”

“Yes, Raider!” A respectful reply came from outside the door. Then, someone opened the curtain and several hundreds of strong indigenous women walked in a single line and carried the warriors sleeping like a corpse on the stone platforms out of the house.

At the same time, the Tudenan headman and the fat chores chief led more than ten aborigines holding large wooden plates that were filled with delicious-smelling barbecued meat, fresh and luscious wild fruits, juicy fried worms, and thick delicious fish soup to place them in front of Zhang Lisheng.

“Tugra, the fat worms raised in the tribe has grown so quickly already?” When he saw the skewered worms that smelled so delicious, he picked up a skewer and ate it. With oil dripping out of his mouth, he nodded and said, “It tastes good. Now that we have these worms, we’ll be able to produce several tens of thousands more warriors right?”

‘Fat worm’ was the collective name the Hellfire tribesmen on Shrimp B1 Island gave to all edible worms. The identification, capture and breeding of these worms required special skills but these skills have always circulated only in Samru, Pelungia and Eruya. Right now, they had been mastered by Tudenan already.

“Raider, the fat worm eats basically every tree so they’re very easy to be bred. It’s just that most of the worms we breed are poisonous. When Samru, Pelungia and Eruya bred these fat worms last time, the key means to feed the worms is a mixture of different ratios of dried leaves from the Tushan Mulbery tree, Elder Alkali tree, Jumbo Feather tree before they’re killed. This is easy to master after some time. I’ve calculated before, now that we have the fat worms, the Tudenan tribe will be able to produce an extra 65,000 warriors at least.” The Tudenan headman kneeled on the ground and replied respectfully.

Zhang Lisheng sat directly on the ground. As he consumed the food, he asked, “You’re proficient in everything now, Tugra. How is the progress of the tribe’s separation construction? The Kamando didn’t harass us right?”

“They didn’t, Raider. Another batch of giant millispiders have matured in our tribe so the number of warriors with partners has recovered to 48,000. Half of them are patrolling near the separated dwelling and now, the Kamando doesn’t dare to pick any trouble with us at all.”

“The Kamando didn’t suffer much damage on their strength so the more they act so, the more we have to be careful.”

“Yes, Raider.”

“It’s good that you understand. You may retreat now. It’s the busiest time of the tribe now so don’t waste time on me,” Zhang Lisheng said and drew a circle in the air. “Oh yeah, all of you. Retreat as well.”

The Tudenan headman did not have any reply for such words that came out of the Raider so he could only stand up and lower his head before retreating silently with everybody else.

Watching their backs disappearing from the doorway, Zhang Lisheng swallowed a beast’s thigh the size of a fist that had been roasted till it was golden yellow, together with its bones and frowned as he muttered to himself, “400 Super Hellfiremen and 48,000 indigenous warriors with ‘war partners’. This strength is still insufficient…”

Wiping his hands on the animal skin wrapped around his body, he took out the communication device from the animal skin pouch at his waist.

This time, when the screen just changed from a bald eagle to a map of the foreign world, before the young man could speak, Cole’s deep voice had already resonated from the communication device. “Compass, you’ve finally turned on your communication device!”

Zhang Lisheng could tell that something was wrong with the US Army’s chief commander on Shrimp B1 Island so he asked strangely, “What’s wrong, General?”

“In the past three days, there have been hundreds of terrorist attacks in the human gathering place. A monster, that should be a mutated earthworm or something, would come up from time to time from the underground and swallow the patrolling soldiers on the ground. We first thought that these people have gone missing and it was only until yesterday that our technicians captured the image of it attacking the soldiers through the CCTV. Its action is very fast, so fast that it’s completely inconceivable…”

“King of the Sierras…” Upon hearing Cole’s description, the young man froze as he blurted out.

Cole was stunned. Immediately, he yelled at the communication device, “You know this type of monster?”

“Not this type of monster, but this particular one!” Zhang Lisheng recalled the horrifying experience of the rainy night not long ago and the exquisite screams let out by the tribal alliance guardian spiritual monsters when he returned to the battlefield. With a gloomy voice, he answered, “If I have not guessed wrongly, the monster attacking you should be the spiritual monster leader of the Kamando tribe. It’s also the most powerful god on Shrimp B1 Island, the King of the Sierras.”

“But some attacks happened at the same time so there should be more than one monster.”

“Perhaps it has two heads, or even three or four. Or perhaps it’s not its mouth that swallows the human but its hand, leg or tail instead.. General, since it’s a monster, who knows how weird it can be.”

“You have a point, Mr. Zhang.” Cole digested the young man’s words for a while. “What else do you know about this King of the Sierras?”

“You know everything that I know now, General. This monster is very mysterious, but since it launches attacks from the ground, maybe the ‘earthquake monitor’ can detect it in advance. Or maybe, you can lay a layer of wires or tough rubber under the concrete floor to prevent it from appearing naturally.”

“This is indeed a good method but we’re elite professional soldiers who come to seek revenge, not some seismologists or construction workers,” Cole said coldly.

“Oh, does this mean that you’re going to attack the Kamando, General?” Zhang Lisheng asked with wide eyes.

“I want to do so but the order given by the Department of Defense is to continue to cooperate with your actions. Mr. Zhang, I have to admit, so far, you’ve done a very splendid job.”

“Thanks for the compliment, General. I hope that I can do more splendidly in the future but unfortunately, right now, the leader of the Tudenan thinks that the tribe doesn’t have the ability to conquer the Kamando tribe yet. They need to fully digest the fruit of victory they achieved from the battle with the tribal alliance first before they could…” Zhang Lisheng’s heart gave a jolt and sighed.

“The terrorist attacks are going on at any time, so we can’t wait too long.”

“General Cole, I understand your anxiousness but please understand my helplessness. I have no control over when the Tudenan tribe will launch their battle.”

“But you can go and talk to someone who has the right to decide. Aren’t you a ‘parliament member’ of the tribe?” Cole’s impatient voice resonated from the communication device. “Tell those natives, as long as they can attack Kamando within ten days, no, within five days. I’ll give them five large twin-cylinder steam-engined steel boats regardless of the outcome. If they win, I’ll give ten ships plus two steam-powered vessels with steam turbines. ”

The steam engine on Earth could not be mentioned in the same breath at all with the magical steam technology mastered by the Karlado people from the foreign world who invaded South Africa. From its emergence in the course of industrialization until its elimination now, it only had a history of slightly over 200 years. Compared to the internal combustion engine, motor power and the most advanced nuclear power engine, it did appear to be very backward.

However, it was precisely because of the emergence of steam engines that the Industrial Revolution in the Western world was triggered, allowing the Earth civilization to enter the chapter of modern society.

From the perspective of sea navigation, the emergence of steam engines had fundamentally changed the ship’s impetus power, completely changing the ship’s driving force from manpower and natural to mechanical power; The revolutionary shift in the direction of the vessel from partially controllable to fully controllable, while providing greater power to the ship, made it possible for larger vessels to be built, rather than just building giant sailboats.

The twin-cylinder steam engine was the standard power source in the early phase of the Industrial Revolution, it was also the first steam engine used in civilian ships.

The steam turbine, on the other hand, was a rotary power machine that would convert steam energy into mechanical work and could be used directly to drive ship propellers. Of course, it could also be used to drive pumps, fans, compressors during mechanical production and could also be used as a prime mover to generate electricity. Its kinetic energy was undoubtedly much stronger.

Zhang Lisheng could give the Tudenan craftsman several drawings for them to build wooden sailboats but it was impossible for the craftsmen to build giant steel steam-driven vessels based on drawings itself. He dared not simply buy a ship and just drive it to Shrimp B1 Island to hand it to the native’s hands. Now that he heard Cole proposing such conditions, he could not help but be ecstatic with joy.

Even so, he put on a facade and merely smiled wryly. “General Cole, even I don’t even know what a twin-cylinder steam engine, or what this steam turbine is, let alone those natives…”

“You can explain to them in words that they understand, Mr. Zhang. If they attack the Kamando tribe in five days, they can get five steel ships that can, erm, carry a load of 2000 natives and if they defeat the Kamando, the number will be increased to a total of 12 steel ships, in which two of them are large ships that can carry a load of 3500 natives. I believe such a condition would definitely make them feel tempted.”

“I don’t have the confidence you have but let me try, Sir. However, for my future academic career safety, I have to ask one more question. It should not be easy to produce such an antique ship from 100 or 200 years ago right? If it’s 12 ships in one go right away…”

“You can be rest assured that there is full support from the country. This is not difficult. It is very simple to build such a steam ship with low precision requirements in a modern ship factory. One month! It’d only take one month for all the steamships to automatically appear on the coastline closest to the C1 tribe. Of course, it’ll have to depend on their effort to see whether it’s 5 or 12 ships in total.”